Sign up today for Post Pro Picks, The Post's free, weekly NFL pick 'em game, where you can win great prizes, form groups to play against your friends, see how you fare against our experts or just play for fun. Register at http://washingtonpost.com/pro-picks

From the get-go, Gano seemed headed for NFL

"It was obvious he was head and shoulders above a normal kid," Charlie Armstrong, Gano's high-school coach, recalled this week. "The way the ball came off his foot, the sound of the ball when he hits it was just different than anything I'd ever seen. Sometimes it sounded like a gun was shot."

Which is why when he was still a high schooler in Pensacola, teammates and coaches were already mentioning the NFL as a realistic possibility. And every step of Gano's career seemed to confirm those expectations: He was named USA Today's national high school kicker of the year as a senior, earned a full scholarship to Florida State as a punter and kicker, won the Lou Groza Award as the nation's top place kicker a year ago, and then earned tryouts with more than a half-dozen NFL teams, including a preseason audition with the Baltimore Ravens.

Finally, after the Redskins cut ties with Shaun Suisham earlier this month, Gano was signed to a three-year contract, and told by special teams coach Danny Smith that he could be Washington's long-term answer.

"They said they want me to be the kicker for the future," Gano said. "If I kick well and keep kicking well, hopefully they'll decide to keep me."

The view from Dallas

Anthony Spencer is stepping up, Charean Williams of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes, and making plays now that he was missing before. "In the past four games," Williams writes, "Spencer has 31 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 13 quarterback pressures, two pass breakups, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He finally is living up to the expectations the Cowboys had for him when they made him the 26th overall pick in 2007, making Cowboys fans forget about Greg Ellis."

A very merry day to you all from Jason Reid, Rick Maese, Barry Svrluga, Paul Tenorio and me. It's a little quieter on the beat than usual this morning and we have a moment to catch our breath and thank you for hanging out here with us again this year. We wish you all the best!

It's a typical Friday for the Redskins, which means there'll be a practice and injury update later.

Gano should be the answer at kicker. I hope Danny Smith just lets him kick it deep into the endzone each time, none of the short directional kickoffs should be needed. In short, don't screw him up Smith!

Cindy didn't post a link to the best Redskins-related article in today's paper. Easy to miss it amid the holidays and the other sports news, but LaVar Arrington's restaurant closed. First Six Flags goes belly up and now the Sideline:

Murphy's Law got Suisham fired as a scapegoat for the coaches conservative approach of not playing to win when clearly the offense was on a roll in those games and touchdowns would have clearly won the game and given a tremendous confidence to the Team.

You see Murphy's Law says that if anything can go wrong it will. By the coach not doing all he could to win the percentages of Murphy's Law increased and cost the Washington Redskins games.

If Zorn had played for touchdowns instead of field goals who knows whether or not our offense that was in a groove would have scored and thereby eliminated the chance of the field goal kicker becoming a victim of Murphy's Law.

Suisham was the highest percentage field goal kicker the Redskins have ever had. I hope this new guy is better.

But it is clear to me that Suisham is a victim of Zorns pathetic coaching philosophy. Going conservative at the end of games to ensure what you think is a victory is no way to win and it never has been. If it is evident that good offensive play has put you in a position to win games you do not take the ball out of the offense's hands to kick field goals.

The field goal kicker is called upon when the offense has given its best effort to score.

When you play hard to score Murphy's Law is in your favor, but when you eschew the touchdown because you think that a field goal wins the game the God's of Murphy's Law are against you.

I really feel that Jim Zorn eschewed going for the touchdown at the end of games because he wanted to show his control as the HC and not let the wins be attributted to the Bingo Caller.

On numerous times when the offense has been on drive in the redzone he has made terrible decisions. As a HC he has not shown the sense to leave well enough alone.

I hope one of the best kickers the Redskins has ever had does not kick our butts in Fedex field tommorrow.

Quadruple word score!
But I'd be worried about someone who spent any appreciable time inside Zorn's head. Unless you've loaded up on the egg nog, it's going to cause a headache. At least with the egg nog, you'll have earned the headache.
Hip Hip Whatever.

happy holidays to all! blogmasters (jason, rick, paul, barry) should take the day off from updating this blog and do their best to get home asap and spend the day with families. been a tough season, but we're stronger for it.
here's hoping 2010 is finally the stepping stone to building a strong franchise for the next decade, as we all have suffered enough through half-ass rebuilds for 17 years.